


A Piece of Cake

by lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, pre-agentcorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23986408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress
Summary: Lena has a saving-the-world tradition-- one she lets Alex in on. (a 4x04 pre-agentcorp companion)
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 102





	1. Chapter 1

After the crisis passes, Alex can breathe again. She can slow down and think, and of course it means she the time to overanalyze what happened.

Kara’s plummet to Earth. The heart-thundering reality of watching her sister slowly dying. The blind, instinctive reach towards the only person who could help.

The flash of hurt when Alex thanked Lena for coming. The shutter of Lena’s gaze as she focused on the task at hand. The relentless toil to get the air scrubbed of radiation.

Their short exchange when Lena left– a brief farewell punctuated by an almost dismissive smile from Lena even as she was already turning away– now seems ominously perfunctory.

It’s that sinking suspicion that drives Alex to the Baldwin after leaving Kara’s apartment. When she knocks on the door to the penthouse suite, she isn’t sure what she expects.

Lena Luthor in an oversized sweatshirt and soft sleep shirts certainly isn’t it.

Alex’s brain short circuits somewhere around the wide frame glasses and doesn’t kick back in again until Lena arches an eyebrow.

“Can I do something for you, Agent Danvers?”

Blinking rapidly, Alex curls her toes in her boots to distract herself from the flush threatening to bloom across the back of her neck.

“Yeah– I mean, no! No, I was just, in the neighborhood, and–” Alex cut herself off, nipping the ramble before tumbled into unrecoverable territory. She takes a deep breath, releases it in a sigh and meets Lena’s gaze. “Are we good?”

Lena studies her with an indecipherable gaze. “Does it matter?”

“It does to me.”

Through the sweatshirt Alex hadn’t noticed the hard set of Lena’s shoulders, but she does when they soften, just a bit.

Lena steps aside, and Alex accepts the silent invitation. She steps into the suite and casts a nervous gaze around the space, taking in the impersonal decor and uncluttered floor plan.  
It doesn’t look like someone’s lived in it for two years. It looks like a way station, a stop on the road to a final destination, despite the fact that– per Kara– Lena has been in the same room since she came to National City.

“Cake?”

With a jolt, she turns back to Lena, and follows the direction of her gesturing wave to the slice of cake sitting on a plate on a nearby desk.

“Cake,” Lena reiterates. “I have one every time I save the world. And since you meet the requirements today too…”

Alex doesn’t know what compels her to shrug. “Why not?”

Gotta be better than a bottle of scotch, right?

She shrugs out of her leather jacket too– partly in deference to Lena’s casual attire, but also because she’s suddenly sweltering.

Lena doesn’t speak as she hands Alex a fork, and they start picking bites of chocolate cake off the plate. It’s delicious, layered with mousse and a layer of raspberry jam, and Alex thinks she could make it a tradition of her own.

Way better than scotch.

But as their snacking stretches quietly, Alex realizes that Lena hasn’t answered her question.

Leaning back, she sets her fork aside. Lena doesn’t look up, and Alex takes a moment to study her. Once upon a time, she’d marveled at Kara’s ability to read Lena like a book. To Alex’s eye she was solid ice, but now… now she recognizes the detached affability, the front of relaxed congeniality. It speaks volumes, and tells Alex her gut had been right.

“So…” Alex asks slowly. “Are we?”

Lena pauses, and Alex can almost see her weighing the option of playing dumb. In the end, green eyes flick to hers. “Maybe I should be the one asking you that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You seemed… maybe not surprised, that I came to the DEO,” Lena says. She worries the last bite of cake with her fork, shredding it to crumbs. “But what you said certainly suggests you felt there was a chance that I wouldn’t show.”

Surprise blanks Alex’s brain, and in her pause Lena shrugs and leans back, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Supergirl and I may have our differences, but I’d hoped we’d been through enough together that you’d know I wouldn’t let her die because of them.”

“I did– I do! No, Lena, that was never–” Alex shakes her head. “No that’s WHY I called you. Because I knew you would. When I said those things, I… I was trying to express my gratitude, nothing more. I did a terrible job, clearly, but please believe me that I didn’t mean to imply…”

She trails off under Lena’s gaze. God, how does Kara do this? Talking to Lena is HARD when she looks at you like she can see into your soul. Or like she has some arcane knowledge of the universe– Alex, what the fuck.

“I was trying to thank you, because even though you were just doing the right thing, it was personal. So, so personal. To me. Supergirl is really important and before you showed up I was so scared that she was going to die on that table. You may have come to save her, but you also put my fears at ease. Because I knew you could save her– and I knew that you would.”

For a long moment, nothing happens. Alex’s confession hangs in air between them, absolution weighing as heavy as damnation. Then Lena blinks, and a slow smile curls her lips. She leans forward again, folding her arms on the edge of the table.

“We’re good,” she says finally.

Alex releases a breath of relief, sagging. Lena’s smile persists as she reaches again for her fork, fiddling by trailing the tines through smears of mousse.

“Does she know how you feel about her?”

“What?”

Lena’s smile turns devilish, and comprehension dawns with a jolt. “Oh! No! It’s not like that. At all. Really, she’s not.” Jesus FUCK why doesn’t Lena know yet? “Supergirl is family. Like a sister. Really.”

Nodding, Lena processes the vehement protestations. Then she lifts a curious eyebrow. “So then she and Kara…?”

Goddammit. “I… haven’t asked?”

Non-answer. It works.

“That cake was amazing,” Alex blurts, desperate to change the subject. Lena goes with it. Thank god.

“It’s one of my favorites.”

Then the conversation flounders. Lena resumes her uncanny study of Alex, and Alex knows she needs to retreat before she ruins inroad she’d just repaved between them.

“It’s late. I should go.”

Lena rises with her, and escorts her to the door. Just as Alex steps into the hall, she speaks.

“You know… the cafe where I get the cake does a great breakfast. If you’d like to try it sometime.”

Alex grins. “Sure. I’ll call Kara–”

“I love Kara to pieces, but that girl has a habit of consuming all the air in the room.” Lena meets Alex’s shocked blink with a soft, enticing smile. “And I think I’d like an opportunity to get to learn more about you, Agent Danvers.”

It’s not until Lena tilts her head that Alex suddenly remembers how to speak.

“S-sure…” She swallows. “I’m free tomorrow?”

Lena’s smile widens. “I’ll text you the address.”

“O-okay.”

“Good night.”

“Night.”

The door closes, and Alex stiffly marches into the elevator. Only there does Alex’s knees turn to jelly and she has to sag against the rail to keep herself upright. She grins, heart fluttering in her chest.

“Oh my god.”

What the hell was that?


	2. Chapter 2

Alex knocks on Lena’s door too late to be considered polite. But she has a hunch, and is proven right when the door opens just enough to reveal a wide-awake Lena with heavy features.

Dull eyes flicker down to the slice of cake in Alex’s hand, pristine in its case of clear plastic.

“I know today may not seem like a win,” Alex allows. “But after all you did to help, it felt wrong for there to not be cake.”

She senses Lena’s hesitation, and the moment she takes to weigh her options. In the end, the door opens wider, allowing Alex to step inside.

Lena shuts and locks the door before returning to her couch, where a glass and an open bottle of scotch are waiting for her. It’s a sharp contrast to the scene she’d found the last time they did this. Gone is the quiet sense of victory; gone is cocky smile that had quirked at her from beneath large glasses.

In its place is muted grey– grey silence, grey eyes, and grey features made pale with loss.

“Lena, I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” Lena’s throat clicks as she swallows her mouthful of liquor. “You didn’t kill my brother. Or allow him to escape in the first place.”

Alex came expecting a jab about Supergirl, but the mention of Lex’s escape gives her pause. As far as she knows, the DOC is on the hook for that.

“What do you mean?” she asks, settling on the couch next to Lena’s bare feet. She sets the cake on the coffee table. It won’t be getting eaten tonight.

“I developed the harun'el serum for Lex, you know,” Lena delivers bluntly. “He was dying, and I agreed to help him. That’s how he was able to escape.”

Shock crackles down Alex’s spine. Lena had used DEO resources to cure the world’s most dangerous mass murderer? She– hadn’t even suspected.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why would I?” Lena scoffs. “Don’t act so surprised, Agent Danvers. The last time the DEO didn’t agree with my motives you all but arrested me.”

“Okay, first of all– it was your methods we didn’t agree with, not your motives,” Alex counters, “and secondly, a lot has changed since then, Lena! We’re friends!”

Lena snorts derisively.

“Lena!”

Shoving to her feet, Lena escapes Alex’s glare by moving to the kitchen. An attempt thwarted by Alex swiftly following, refusing to be ignored.

“Lena, where is this coming from–”

“Don’t,” Lena spits. She smacks her glass on th counter with a sharp crack, sloshing amber liquid onto the mottled marble. “Don’t stand there and pretend like you have some blind trust in me. And frankly you shouldn’t– don’t touch me!”

She recoils from Alex’s reaching fingers, but Alex insists. Her hands brush the outside of Lena’s arms, drifting down to gently clasp her wrists. It brings them dangerously close: close enough for Alex to smell the alcohol on Lena’s breath, see the flutter of her sweater from the rapid thud of her heartbeat.

Lena almost pulls free, but freezes at the last moment. Waiting.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting.”

Alex’s voice is softer than she intends, tilting them into a new sort of intimacy. There’s a split second that follows as Lena’s features scrunch with some indiscernable emotion, before she’s leaning in, surging really, and pressing hot, sloppy lips to Alex’s mouth.

Hands reach up to cup Alex’s face, freeing Alex’s fingers to curl into the weave of Lena’s sweater. Her senses fill with the heady presence that is Lena– fierce and desperate and… drunk.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Alex pants, disengaging just enough for a time out. Lena looks at her with heavy eyes, and a gaze filled need. “Are you sure?”

“I need you…” comes the muted response, “to help me forget.”

Alex reaches up to tuck dark hair behind a pale ear. “Forget what?”

“Everything I know.”

It’s a tall order– there isn’t a woman on Earth who knows more than Lena Luthor. But even as Alex surrenders to the hands tugging at her shirt, she vows to give it her best shot.


End file.
